


we paint the town blue

by dreambeanie



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Archie Andrews & Betty Cooper Friendship, Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Childhood Friends, F/M, Hurt Jughead Jones, Jughead Jones & Toni Topaz Friendship, Jughead Jones Needs a Hug, Southside Serpent Jughead Jones, Supportive Archie Andrews, Toni Topaz is a Good Friend, We are all Irrelevant.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:07:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21759574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreambeanie/pseuds/dreambeanie
Summary: He was Jughead, Betty's best friend. Archie's blood brother. Veronica's frienemy turned ally. He wasn't a filthy gang member, he wasn't going to follow in his father's footsteps...right?
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Betty Cooper/Veronica Lodge/Jughead Jones, Archie Andrews/Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper/Kevin Keller, Cheryl Blossom/Betty Cooper, Cheryl Blossom/Jughead Jones, Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz, Jughead Jones/Toni Topaz, Jughead Jones/Veronica Lodge
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	1. 3 months

**Author's Note:**

> hi, it's me again!! this is the first chapter of my new fanfic and i really hope y'all like it. i'm really trying to improve and make more creative ideas. if anyone wants to give any constructive criticism or ideas, please go ahead in the comments ❤️❤️❤️

_I guess you really did it this time_

_Left yourself in your warpath_

_Lost your balance on a tightrope_

_Lost your mind tryin' to get it back_

_~_ Innocent - Taylor Swift

Jughead walked out into the heavy rain, immediately getting soaked. Fittingly, it suited his mood to a T, and it was undoubtedly clear; his eyes were getting darker, his soul had become a hefty weight to carry. And the guilt. The guilt was tormenting him constantly, and it was basically a slow, treacherous death.

It'd been 3 months. 3 months since he joined the Serpents and began lying to his Northside friends about basically _everything._ Toni would say that they deserved it, but that was just her lightening the mood when it felt too dull to speak. Although he knew that telling them would sabotage everything he'd been trying to build for the past 13 years, he knew it was right. He knew that the only way to keep their trust is to tell them, yet the sickening feeling in his stomach everytime they brought up the Serpents or the Southside convinced him otherwise.

He knew it wouldn't last, living on two sides could never last, even though it comforted him. He felt _comfortable_ knowing that if he lost one side, he'd always have the other one to go back to. And yeah, it was extremely selfish, cruel even, to his Northside friends, but if they ever found out, he was sure they would cut bate. Frankly, he didn't blame them. He was a liar.

As the guilt slowly started sinking in again, Jughead saw Veronica's car move closer to his trailer. She unlocked the car door and lowered the window. "Get in, Jones!" she yelled through the pouring rain, dripping on the top of her car. He stood there, silently, for a couple seconds until she started speaking again, "What are you waiting for?" Without another word, he got into the back-seat of her car, shutting the door behind him.

"Why the hell were you standing out there in the rain?! You're soaked!" she exclaimed, turning around to look at him. He then caught sight of bright red hair in the passenger seat. _Archie was there too._ "It's fine," he argued flatly. Veronica rolled her eyes and turned back around to continue driving; this was the usual. Jughead never allowed them to be concerned about him or his well being. He was always _fine,_ but they knew better than to believe him. "Jug..." Archie started to say in a worried manner, as if he was saying 'are you sure you're fine?' without actually saying it. "I'm fine, Arch," he insisted. _He definitely wasn't fine._

Veronica then drove them off to school. 

**_~.~.~.~.~_ **

"There's something wrong with him, V...I know it," Betty asserted. It was obvious, at least to her it was. Jughead wasn't normally talkative, or energetic, or even _nice_ to anyone out of his friend group, but Betty didn't blame him. After all the shit he'd been through, no one expected him to be the nice type. It almost felt like he didn't belong in their group, because he wasn't like them. At least that's how it seemed to anyone looking in from the outside.

She knew all of that to be true, his emotions, his distance from them, all of it, but it was getting _worse._ After his dad got arrested for being involved in a murder, it was over for him. Betty tried calling him everyday, just to check if he was still alive, but he rarely answered, and when he did, he would give one off answers to her questions. She'd never seen him like that. Even when his mom and sister moved to Teledo, he still put on a smile. He still _talked_ to her, and Betty would be lying if she said that she didn't feel responsible for his dad getting arrested and his life falling apart. After all, she was the one who asked him to help her investigate Jason's murder, which his dad was coincidentally involved in.

"Come on, B. You know how he is. You really don't expect him to be depressed or distant after he just lost his last family member?" Veronica conferred, trying to calm down her friend, who was now laying back in her lilac bedsheets in clear agony. "I know, I know...but something's still off. You'd be kidding yourself if you said there wasn't."

Veronica's blank expression faltered at the last sentence; she knew Betty was right, he was acting eerie. And it wasn't just his normal amount of eerie, it was overwhelmingly strange, but she assumed he'd eventually go back to normal. Her assumption was debunked though, because it had been 3 months and he was still more aloof than usual. "You're right," she admitted, both to Betty and to herself. "I'll call Archie, we need to know what's up with him." 


	2. sunlight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY chapter 2!!! y'all are getting the bughead you deserve luvs

_School bell rings, walk me home_  
_Sidewalk chalk covered in snow_  
_Lost my gloves, you give me one_  
_"Wanna hang out?"_  
_Yeah, sounds like fun_  
_Video games, you pass me a note_  
_Sleeping in tents,_ _It's nice to have a friend_

_~_ It's nice to have a friend - Taylor Swift 

_**3 months earlier** _

"Come on, Juggie...pick up.." Betty whispered to herself as she put her phone to her ear. It had been 1 week since his dad got arrested. 1 week. She called him everyday since that night, but he never answered her, she didn't blame him though. It was the least she expected after she dragged him into an investigation that ended up getting his father in trouble. 

"Hey, Betty.." she heard a hoarse voice say. Somehow, she felt both relieved and saddened at the same time. All that could go through her head was the pain in his voice; he was obviously fatigued. She guessed that he hadn't been sleeping well, or _at all_ , and it stung a little bit to even begin to think about how he felt about everything. "Jug!" she blurted. She kept quiet for a second, and then let a question out with unwary concern, "Are you okay?" _Are you okay_ _??? Of course he wasn't!_

She heard a pause before he started to speak again. "I'm..fine," he muttered in a low tone. Her heart slowly crumbled at his simple lie; she wanted to hug him, tell him everything was going to be okay, but everytime she'd gone to his trailer, she was left waiting outside. She tried telling herself that he just..wasn't there, although she was sure he was just ignoring her knocking.

In that moment, something hit her. She wasn't sure if it was guilt, or empathy, but it made her spit something out. "Juggie...You know I'm always here for you, right? You can talk to me about anything." The other line was quiet for a couple of seconds; he was probably consuming what she was saying to him. "I know."

She wondered why, since that day, he still hadn't talked to her about how he felt.

**~.~.~.~.~**

Jughead's affection for Betty had been obvious; he was a 5 year old kid unable to keep a secret, but that was all it was, a silly crush on a cute, blonde girl...that was until middle school. Puberty hit him like a truck, and he knewthat it wasn't as simple as he once thought.

Yes, he was _physically_ attracted to her, but it wasn't just her body, or how she looked. It was how she laughed at anything he said, and how she was always there to talk him through every difficult moment he went through with his mother's betrayal, and how she _never_ gave up on him. And her smile. Her goddamn smile that never failed to lighten up his exclusively horrible days. 

It almost shocked him how much he needed her in his daily life; she was like the sunlight to his rainy day. Although she had her own shit at home (her overbearing parents and their overextended expectations), she never missed a phone call, or a meet up at Pop's. He almost felt _guilty_ for being so distant through his parent's separation while she fought through her terrors every day. 

After his dad got arrested, he avoided her phone calls. He didn't pretend though, he knew what he was doing and why. Betty really wasted time out of her already busy day to check on him, and he ignored her. He couldn't let her see him break; it might've been toxic masculinity he grew up around, but that wasn't it. He wasn't scared of what her reaction would be per se, more so what the implications would be. 

It was a simple concept, if he became vulnerable with her, he'd have to let her be more involved in her life than she already is. And as much as a _part_ of him wanted that, he just...couldn't burden her with that. He'd already done that once and felt guilty about it. 

**~.~.~.~.~**

_**2 years ago** _

Jughead's life was at a dead end, at least that's how it felt. His mom was gone, Jellybean was gone, his dad was a careless drunk, the Serpents were still trying to anchor them into their drug trades, and worst of all, he couldn't do anything about it. He'd already ran out of Chemistry; he just couldn't take it anymore. Everything was so painfully _normal_ for everyone but him. Stumbling, he plopped down under a tree outside the school, just needing to escape. 

"Juggie?" he heard that familiar voice say. He turned around and glanced at the blonde standing next to the tree. "What happened? I heard Veronica saying you ran out of Chemistry," Betty continued, sitting down next to him. "Well..Veronica would be right," he confirmed with a weak smile, knowing what her reaction would be. Her soft smile dropped, being replaced with a frown, and frankly, he didn't need her to say anything to know what that look meant.

"Mom went to Toledo, took JB, and left me with an excuse of a father," he confessed, his heart probably skipping a beat at the sensitive subject. He could've sworn he heard her let out a soft gasp when he told what was going on. "I don't know what to do, Betty," he said with a clear tremble in his voice. Before he could say anything else, she plunged onto him with a tight hug, and that was all he needed. 

"I'm so sorry, Jug."

**~.~.~.~.~**

It surely didn't take him long to know that she was too good for him. 


End file.
